June 27, 2006

Adventures In Amplitude Modulation - Part 21

This the final installment of the 31 meter band scan (audioafter the fold) I began twoweeks ago, recorded June 2, 2006. As I said before, it was a rewarding romp thorough one of the dozen or so allotted shortwave bands and seems to portend that there will be lots of eventful DXing to come with my new little shortwave portable (the Degen 1103).

People around the station think I have a lot of radios at home. And I do, I suppose, compared to most people. Just looking about my room here, I see over a dozen or so. And there’s certainly more than that tucked away as well. I’d guess that two thirds of them have shortwave, as well as AM and FM. To me, a radio isn’t all that special if I can’t turn in on and hear more than just local stations. Any radio does that.

But I’m not a big collector. I don’t have the space, money or time for that. In fact, it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve gotten some decent receivers. I’ve almost always had at least a couple of radios that received shortwave around, but they were typically Radio Shack portables, or boomboxes with shortwave bands. You can certainly whet your appetite for shortwave and DXing with any number of nominal receivers, but without spending a lotta dough you can graduate up to a more sensitive set or two and be assured you'll find some interesting signals from far over the horizon now and then. And I’ve had a lot of fun doing just that working on these blog posts over the last few months.

I’ll be taking a short summer hiatus from the blog for about two weeks after this. Meanwhile, I’ll be DXing out in the midwest, recording some reception to be posted here. I’m bringing a few radios and lots of batteries. And I’ll hope you can join me here again at that time. Meanwhile here’s most of the rest of that dial scan. It’s the high end of the 31 meter band, recorded the evening of June 2, starting where we left off last week. Here's the first link...

In English, not nearly as clear as their broadcasts on 6000 kHz. News,
like the Bush Administration bullying Chile to vote against Venezuela
at the U.N.

9830 - Hrvatska Radio (Croatia)

Croation, I suppose.

9835 - BBC World Service?

I believe this is a from a relay in South Africa, broadcasting in Swahili. Something about Bird Flu (the H5N1 virus).

9845 - BBC World Service?

If I’m right, this is BBC broadcasting from Cyprus this time, in
Arabic. Nice place for a relay to the Middle East. The sun never sets
on those BBC relays.

9855 - The Voice of America? (from Morocco)

In Arabic? It’s a male announcer, and another station with a female
announcer (which I believe is a bleed over from the Voice of Russia
just 5kHz up the dial) stomping on this signal, as well as an
obnoxious buzz washing over the whole mess.

9860 - The Voice of Russia

This is Russia’s English service. Old fashioned radio, Eastern European
style. Some former Soviet bloc countries, Russia in particular, are
very TRADITIONAL with their English language international service. Many of the
announcers I hear now, were on the air a couple of decades ago, including the narrator of the
historic tale included here.

He’s talking about OLD Russian history, Ivan the Terrible and the 13th
century, all embellished with rich and historic musical interludes.

9865 - The Voice of America (from Morocco again)

Arabic pop music, I guess. Nice. Although it’s not easy to hear VOA
broadcasts in the U.S., it’s obvious they’re out there, broadcasting in
languages like Arabic.

9880 - The Voice of Russia (From Armenia)

In English. Now it’s a narrative on the 4th century Russia with another announcer. Not sure if this is the same thing as we just heard on 9865.

9885 - VOA (From Botswana)

In English this time. In a “Today in History” moment Tony Collins
brags about U.S. space walking. Funny isn’t it. The Russians dig many
centuries deep into history to position themselves on international
radio. The U.S. brags about their 1960's scientific prowess.

Wow. A clandestine broadcast from Madagascar, in English! Not rock
solid clear, but solid reception from the other side of the globe. This
is actually a morning show in East Africa, specifically aimed at Sudan.

How to they have such a whopping signal? Funding. Formerly “Radio Voice
of Hope” , Radio Nile is a broadcast service largely (if not entirely)
funded by the Dutch government and a couple of Christian groups who actually seem to be interested in helping the underdogs, and promoting peace and democracy (unlike some
of their U.S. counterparts). It’s run by the “New Sudan Council of
Churches” in support of the southern rebels (mostly black), opposed to the official Sudanese government in the north (where the population is
largely Arabic and Muslim).

The accents are thick, some of it is not in English and the reception
throbs a bit, but it’s interesting listening if you give it some
attention. In between reggae and African music the male and female
hosts (passionately) discuss the ongoing civil war, religion and
African and global politics.

I don’t know enough about the political situation in and around Sudan
to say all that much about it, but with shortwave you can hear directly
from concerned parties who are directly affected by the suffering and
injustice. In Africa, shortwave is alive and well. And the ability to
pick up a broadcast in English, from a third world country over eight
thousand miles away via the radio is still damn compelling to me. It’s
the kind of thing that makes me power up my shortwave radios
again and again. And that’s why there’s well over twenty minutes of Radio
Nile on this recording.

Comments

The station on 9865 is technically not VOA, although it is funded and run by the same government organization that funds VOA and transmitted over the same transmitters. I heard a clear Radio Farda ID in there. Radio Farda is the Radio Free Europe-inspired station aimed at Iran, and broadcasts pop music and brief news bulletins in Farsi. Congress has continually chipped away at the VOA to fund these single-purpose stations that don't have to live up to the high standards of the VOA Charter. VOA no longer broadcasts in Arabic, for example, that function having been taken over by Radio Sawa, which broadcasts mostly a mix of Arabic and Western pop music with brief rip-and-read style news broadcasts. Radio Farda does the same in Farsi for Iran, and VOA no longer broadcasts in Farsi as a result.

We no longer attempt to broadcast the kind of programs VOA produces, which explore and explain America and its culture to the rest of the world, to these very important target areas. People talk about how Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty helped win the Cold War, but what they forget is that RFE/RL's surrogate home service approach was complemented by VOA's reputation for impartial and objective information. No longer.